2025 Brain Prize awarded for uncovering how tumours hijack neural activity
Two neuroscientists have been awarded the prestigious Brain Prize 2025 for their groundbreaking discoveries showing how neural activity in the brain can promote cancer development, opening new avenues for glioma treatment.
Frank Winkler, Professor for Neuro-Oncology, Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine and Managing Senior Physician in the Department of Neurology.
Michelle Monje, Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Professors Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler have been recognised with neuroscience’s highest honour for establishing the emerging field of ‘Cancer Neuroscience’, fundamentally changing our understanding of how brain tumours develop and interact with surrounding neural tissue.
The Lundbeck Foundation announced today that the DKK 10 million (€1.3 million) Brain Prize has been awarded to the pair for their independent yet complementary research demonstrating that glioma cells can form functional connections with neurons, essentially hijacking normal brain activity to fuel tumour growth, spread and treatment resistance.
Understanding the brain-cancer connection
Gliomas represent the most common primary brain tumours and remain extraordinarily difficult to treat. These malignancies are the leading cause of brain tumour-related deaths in both children and adults, with high-grade variants being almost universally fatal despite aggressive treatment.
Prof Monje, the Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Stanford Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and Prof Winkler, Professor of Experimental Neurooncology at Heidelberg University, have transformed our understanding of the biology of these neurological cancers through their pioneering work.
Their research has uncovered extensive interactions between glioma cells and neurons, characterising their molecular and cellular basis. These networks exhibit hallmarks of functional neural circuits including synapses, electrical and chemical communication, and coordinated activity.
Chair of The Brain Prize Selection Committee, Professor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, explained: “They have discovered extensive interactions between glioma cells and neurons and have characterized their molecular and cellular basis. These networks exhibit hallmarks of functional neural circuits such as synapses, electrical and chemical communication and coordinated activity.”
From neural activity to cancer progression
The award-winning research demonstrates that glioma cells do not operate in isolation but rather engage in complex interactions with the surrounding brain environment. These tumour cells form synaptic connections with neurons, allowing them to receive excitatory signals from the brain’s normal neural activity.
This neuronal stimulation promotes tumour progression through multiple mechanisms, including enhanced proliferation, invasion, and resistance to treatment. The findings represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of brain tumours, placing neural activity at the centre of disease pathogenesis.
Prof Meyer-Lindenberg further noted: “These mechanisms allow glioma cells to hijack activity in the brain to drive tumour growth, spread and treatment resistance. Strategies to modulate these interactions offer novel approaches for potential new glioma therapies.”
Clinical implications and therapeutic potential
Perhaps most significantly, the discoveries by Profs Monje and Winkler have immediate clinical relevance. Their work suggests that disrupting the synaptic connections between neurons and glioma cells, or modulating neuronal activity, could provide entirely new therapeutic approaches for these devastating cancers.
Both laureates are practicing neuro-oncologists who have actively translated their laboratory findings into clinical trials, exemplifying the bench-to-bedside research model. Their work offers new hope for developing effective treatments for a disease that has seen little therapeutic progress in recent decades.
Lene Skole, CEO of the Lundbeck Foundation, highlighted the significance of their contributions: “The pioneering work of this year’s Brain Prize recipients on brain cancer is a striking example of how a new perspective and scientific approach can provide a completely new level of understanding of the brain and its diseases. The crucial new insights into the neuroscience of brain cancers provided by Professors Monje and Winkler have also unlocked enormous potential for developing new and much-needed treatment approaches.”
Beyond brain tumours
Recent studies from both research groups have shown that the influence of the nervous system is not limited to tumours within the brain. Similar mechanisms may operate in cancers throughout the body, suggesting that neural regulation of tumour growth could be a widespread phenomenon with broad implications for cancer biology and treatment.
This expanding scope of ‘Cancer Neuroscience’ represents a paradigm shift that bridges two previously separate fields of research—neuroscience and oncology—opening promising new research directions.
The Brain Prize, established in 2011 by the Lundbeck Foundation, is the world’s largest award for outstanding contributions to neuroscience. The prize ceremony will take place in Copenhagen with the participation of HM The King of Denmark, who serves as patron of The Brain Prize.
Through this recognition, the Lundbeck Foundation hopes to inspire more researchers to enter the exciting field of Cancer Neuroscience, potentially accelerating progress in understanding and treating these devastating diseases.
